First Machine -JGRO

[RedLabel]

your build is looking great. May I ask some questions:

1. What is the difference in cost for using baltic plywood instead of mdf
2. What is the white material you are using for the pipe holders/adjusters. And tips of drilling guided holes for them.

Thanks, and good luck with the build. Hope to see some cuts soon...

[wallyh]

I had some baltic ply from another project and a local store, Rockler, has a two for one sale from time to time. I'll try to find my receipt. The thickness is a little less than 3/8(used for torsion boxes) and 3/4(used for the rest of the construction). It just means you need to pay more attention to measurements. The MDF is dead on 1/2 and 3/4. The ply is great to work with and the MDF kicks out a lot of dust. The ply taps real good too.
The white material is HDPE, a plastic type material. I'd like to build a complete machine out of this. I have a small tabletop drill press. I got my material at a plastics company and they cut the pipe holders and adjuster pieces for me. They were all square, my cuts probably wouldn't have been! I made a jig for each size and clamped the jig to the drill press, I used a forstner bit for the center holes. I repositioned the jig for the corner screw holes and since the pieces were square, all you had to do was flip the piece around for the four holes in each piece. Wasn't too bad once you positioned the pieces correctly.
Hope this makes some sense.
Wally

[wallyh]

Another question, just put the gantry back together again after drilling holes for the jack screws ( how do these work?) and what are the 1/4" holes for in detail 21, gantry corner blocks? Are they for stiffening dowels? Thanks, Wally

[wallyh]

Well, I'm still plugging along. I have the Y axis lined up pretty good and it seems to roll very good. That said, I'm having a devil of a time with X and Z. For starters the size is off because the Baltic ply is 11/16, not 3/4. Can't be all of the problem though, no doubt me again.
Wally